Cricket's Muve Music and TuneCore Sign Songwriter Royalty Agreement

Cricket Communications, a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless services, today announced an agreement with TuneCore, the largest distributor of digital music with one of the highest revenue-generating music catalogs in the world. The agreement will increase Muve Music’s library by up to two million tracks and TuneCore artists will now have access to over 600,000 Muve Music customers. A phased rollout of the TuneCore catalog will start immediately and is expected to be complete within Muve Music by the end of 2012.

"We are pleased to forge an alliance with a visionary global music distribution company like TuneCore and in the process provide Muve Music customers with music from exciting new artists," said John Bolton, senior director of product marketing for Muve Music. "The relationship is demonstrative of our ongoing commitment to connect artists with fans through the mobile device."

Under the agreement, Muve Music will obtain the rights to both the recordings and songs represented by TuneCore and will pay royalties directly to TuneCore. This unique approach provides artists and song writers with an efficient, transparent and timely royalty collection system.

"I was truly excited to get this deal done with a groundbreaking service like Muve Music," says TuneCore CEO, Jeff Price. “TuneCore artists' and songwriters' recordings and songs need to be in this service. Many other entities have tried to do what Muve Music had done, but only they have pulled it off. Customers pay a simple monthly fee for features which can include unlimited song downloads, ring tones and more. It's one of the most innovative, consumer and artist-friendly services on the planet today, and it's growing by leaps and bounds. This relationship will generate more money for artists and songwriters while making a lot of music fans extremely happy."

in America by PC Magazine, January 3, 2012, as well as on the Huawei Ascend II, Samsung Vitality, ZTE Score and the ZTE Chorus at Cricket company-owned stores, online at www.mycricket.com and through select partner retail outlets. Additional accessories are available for purchase including premium headphones, an audio jack and Bluetooth adapter to connect to home and car stereos, either wired or wirelessly.

With the ever-growing Muve Music song catalog, customers can choose from millions of songs featuring the hottest artists from thousands of record labels, which are distributed through Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music and global rights agency Merlin, as well as independents IODA, and INgrooves.

About Cricket:

Cricket is the pioneer and leader in delivering innovative value-rich prepaid wireless services with no long-term contracts serving 6.2 million customers. Cricket offers wireless voice and mobile data services over the latest, high-quality, all-digital 4G (LTE) and 3G CDMA wireless networks. In 2011, Cricket launched its award-winning Muve Music® product, the first music service designed for a wireless phone that now has more than 600,000 customers. Cricket's innovative products and services are available at Cricket branded retail stores, dealers, national retailers and at www.mycricket.com. For more information about Cricket, please visit www.mycricket.com.

About TuneCore:

TuneCore distributes artist's music to iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, eMusic, AmazonMP3, Deezer, Simfy and many other major download and streaming sites for a simple flat fee while taking no rights and no revenue from the sale of the music. Since its launch in 2006, TuneCore has more than 700,000 artist and label account holders, including TuneCore artists: Nine Inch Nails, Drake, Civil Wars, Sonic Youth, Beck, Lil' Wayne, Jay-Z, Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards, Blood On The Dance Floor, Public Enemy, Willie Nelson, They Might Be Giants, Donna Summer, MGM Studios, Bjork, Moby, Girl Talk, Brian Eno, and hundreds of thousands more.

TuneCore (http://tunecore.com) is the largest distributor and has one of the highest revenue-generating music catalogs in the world. In the past two years, TuneCore Artists have sold over 600 million units and generated over $300 million dollars in gross music sales and songwriter revenue.

SAN DIEGO – May 14, 2012 – Cricket Communications, a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless services, today announced that its Muve Music service has signed an agreement with CD Baby, the world’s largest online distributor of independent music. The agreement will bring up to four million new tracks to the Muve Music catalog and CD Baby artists will now have access to over 600,000 Muve Music customers. A phased rollout of the CD Baby catalog will start immediately and is expected to be complete within Muve Music by the end of 2012.

“CD Baby and Muve Music are aligned in connecting artists with fans and generating revenue for artists at the same time. We are excited about the CD Baby relationship and the millions of tracks it will bring to our Muve Music customers,” said John Bolton, senior director of product marketing for Muve Music. “We’re looking forward to working with CD Baby to expand artists’ access to Muve Music’s customer base and provide solutions to satisfy fans’ appetite for unlimited mobile music consumption.”

As a premier distributor of independent music, CD Baby brings Muve Music customers more than 850 genres of music to discover from over 300,000 plus artists, including top performers Ingrid Michaelson, Gregory Alan Isakov and Joe Purdy. The company is run by artists and it takes a grass roots approach to independent music, supporting musicians who have remained independent.

For the first time, artists and Muve Music subscribers will have the ability to download their own music to the Muve Music service and in one move be heard by their friends and fans on the network they belong to without the need for 3rd party label involvement. Independent artists will be able to upload tracks they have recorded themselves to CD Baby’s online platform. Tracks will be directly downloaded into the Muve Music catalog.

“I’ve been impressed with Muve Music’s rapid subscriber growth and how they have bundled music seamlessly into Cricket Wireless mobile rate plans,” says CD Baby president, Brian Felsen. “I think our partnership will provide CD Baby artists with an expansive new audience that is eager to consume music immediately available to them on their mobile devices. I’m delighted to see Muve Music become the latest addition to our partner network, which fulfills our mission of providing our artists with the best opportunity to have their music accessible by their fans and to earn revenue on each listen."

in America by PC Magazine, January 3, 2012, as well as on the Huawei Ascend II, Samsung Vitality, ZTE Score and the ZTE Chorus at Cricket company-owned stores, online at www.mycricket.com and through select partner retail outlets. Additional accessories are available for purchase including premium headphones, an audio jack and Bluetooth adapter to connect to home and car stereos, either wired or wirelessly.

With the ever-growing Muve Music song catalog, customers can choose from millions of songs featuring the hottest artists from thousands of record labels, which are distributed through Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music and global rights agency Merlin, as well as independents IODA, and INgrooves.

About Cricket

Cricket is the pioneer and leader in delivering innovative value-rich prepaid wireless services with no long-term contracts serving more than 6 million customers. Cricket offers wireless voice and mobile data services over the latest, high-quality, all-digital 4G (LTE) and 3G CDMA wireless networks. In 2011, Cricket launched its award-winning Muve Music® product, the first music service designed for a wireless phone that now has approximately 600,000 customers. Cricket's innovative products and services are available at Cricket branded retail stores, dealers, national retailers and at www.mycricket.com. For more information about Cricket, please visit www.mycricket.com.

About CD Baby

CD Baby is the largest digital distributor of independent music in the world, distributing over 4 million tracks to major music retailers and streaming services. Over the last 12 years, CD Baby has paid their artists over $200 million, with checks going out weekly. From their Portland, OR headquarters, CD Baby warehouses and ships over 360,000 independent CD titles to a customer base that spans the entire globe. The company also offers other services to musicians such as the ability to accept credit cards at shows, web hosting through their sister company HostBaby, and eBook distribution through BookBaby.

Join 55,000+ InsidersSIGN UP FOR OURNEWSLETTER

FierceMobileIT provides tools, tips and case studies on how to deploy the latest wireless technologies in the enterprise. Join 55,000+ CIOs and senior IT managers who subscribe to our free daily email briefing. Sign up today!